n. His handsome boyish face was flushing. The delicate,
smooth, whiskerless skin was almost womanish in its texture, and
betrayed almost every emotion stirring behind it. "Allan Dy came along
with my mail. When I'd read it I felt I had to come and tell you the
news right away. You see, I had to tell someone, and wanted you--two
to be the first to hear it."

Kate's eyes were full of a smiling tender amusement at the
ingenuousness of the man. Helen was looking on with less tenderness
than amusement. He had not come to tell her the news--only Kate. The
Kate whom she knew he worshipped, and who was the only rival in his
life to his passionate craving for drink.

She surveyed the man now with searching eyes. What was it that
inspired in her such mixed feeling? She knew she had a dislike and
liking for him, all in the same moment. There was something
fascinating about him. Yes, there certainly was. He was darkly
handsome. Unusually so. He had big, soft, almost womanish eyes, full
of passionate possibilities. The delicate moulding of his features was
certainly beautiful. They were too delicate. Ah, that was it. They
were womanish. Yes, he was womanish, and nothing womanish in a man
could ever appeal to the essentially feminine heart of Helen. His
figure was slight, but perfectly proportioned, and quite lacking in
any suggestion of mannish strength. Again the thought of it brought
Helen a feeling of repugnance. She hated effeminacy in a man. And yet,
how could she associate effeminacy with a man of his known character?
Was he not the most lawless of this lawless village? Then there was
his outward seeming of gentleness. Yes, she had never known him
otherwise, even in his moments of dreadful drunkenness, and she had
witnessed those frequently enough during the past few years.

The whole personality of the man was an enigma to her. Nor was it
altogether a pleasant enigma. She felt that somehow there was an ugly
streak in him which her sister had utterly missed, and she only half
guessed at. Furthermore, somehow in the back of her mind, she knew
that she was not without fear of him.

In spite of Kate's denial, when the man came under discussion between
them, her conviction always remained. She knew she liked him, and she
knew she disliked him. She knew she despised him, and she knew she
feared him. And through it all she looked on with eyes of amusement at
the absurd, dog-like devotion he yielded to her strong, reliant,
big-h